I guess airlines would be bankrupt if I were in charge. In the beginning, I thought the first bag check fee was a bad idea as I believed (still do) that one bag is inherently part of the travel experience. Better yet, I was really convinced that the fee for buying your ticket from an actual person was a bad idea. I mean, the thought of charging someone extra for taking their money in person just didn’t sit well with me…..still doesn’t. But in the end, I came to support the idea of “unbundling” and moved on. I suppose modern airline financials have proven my initial thoughts wrong. Like I’ve said before, I’m an airline ops guy, not a bean counter. Guess it’s a good thing I was pretty good at making the trains (err.. planes) run on time since I obviously don’t have a future in airline fee decisions.
Still, I’m left in wonder when I read things like Frontier charging a fee to carry on your luggage. Overhead bin space is now in big demand, and people are going to pay the fee. Obviously, this isn’t a brand new idea as Spirit has been doing it for a while, and Frontier is now owned by the some of the same money people as Spirit. While I tend to think that there is not a great deal of interest in following this idea at the big legacy airlines, I have to wonder how often some financial analyst floats the suggestion? Could the day come where your elite status or credit card affiliation waives the fee for one checked OR carry on bag? It could, but color me hopeful that’s not a choice we ever have to make.
-MJ, April 28, 2014
Wait’ll they starting charging passengers by the pound. Then you’ll hear howls of outrage!
If a restaurant charged for bread/butter or ice water, it would shock a lot of people. But for a variety of reasons, I wouldn’t be shocked if some restaurants don’t start charging for that. Anyway, as long as you are aware of the fee up front, I don’t have a problem with it. So, I’m a believer that unbundled services really does provide the consumer more options (so long as one can see cost savings). Also, because Spirit charges for both carry-ons and checked bags, I see that their boarding is a lot quicker, than everyone trying to find overhead space. People will tend to combine stuff in one large suitcase and check it. Similar to Southwest, because they don’t charge for checked bags, there is always overhead space available, because people are more likely to check bags on Southwest (than airlines who charge), and the boarding in much much quicker, allowing their planes to have a faster turnaround (I guess).